Want to know just where Canada's artists live? A new study by Hill Strategies for a clutch of governmental culture organizations gives a fascinating look at the country's artistic geography.
It's one of the Rorschach documents where everyone sees what he or she wants to see. Le Devoir had the story on Wednesday which focused on the number of artists in Montreal, especially in the Plateau District, and the Globe and Mail has followed today with a story that emphasizes where artists live in Toronto. A couple of weeks ago a similar report on artists in small communities prompted a story on the CBC which reported that West Bolton in Quebec, Cape Dorset and Denman and Horny Islands in BC are hotbeds of talent. The data used were from the 2006 census compared with Canada Post postal code maps.
One thing is clear: artists don't make much money, compared to the general population, and cheap housing appears to be a determining factor for where they settle. That works out to concentrations in aging or formerly rundown neighborhoods in cities and small clusters in places outside cities where housing is priced low.
But see for yourself: here are the links to maps of artists in cities , and to the artists in small communities summary. I see that I live in one of the greater concentrations--H2V--but that's really no surprise! There are pockets of expensive housing here, but also a lot of artists who moved in when the housing was cheap and who have remained.
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4 comments:
Too bad Le Devoir's story is behind their subscription wall.
Remember that ageing neighbourhoods also have benefits from your "walkable cities" standpoint. Sure housing is cheaper still in small towns and rural areas, but living in many requires a car.
Moreover, as the Globe article says, contact with jobs or clients remains important, even if a lot of work nowadays is e-based.
Number of artists is useful as an indicator, but many of us actually earn what can be laughably called a living in closely-related fields. Sadly the Harper cuts have hit a lot of us hard, even there. I work quite a bit for arts organisations and they have lost a lot of funding (we won't even mention what has happened to international solidarity and human-rights groups...).
Dean Baker started a discussion about how artists are paid which may interest you and Lee. the Post is here.
A more detailed description of the vouchers is here.
--ml
These studies bear closer examination. It turns out that the rural-small community one include places likes Dorval and Westmount which are really parts of a big city: Westmount actually qualifies as a pretty walkable place.
I haven't had the time to think about the car/cheap rent tradeoff in rural areas. Bear some reflection, certainly.
And thanks for the link, Martin
Westmount is actually very walkable, though some of the more upscale digs atop the mountain seem to have that toxic zoning that says nary a shop. Probably most of the artists live in Lower Westmount anyway, walkable from Vendôme or Atwater métros. Westmount isn't really a suburb in urbanistic terms, it is an enclave. And even Dorval is right on a commuter train line. Unlike newer suburbs, many of those old suburbs in the West Island were actually villages with a very walkable core; the question is whether essential shopping and services remain.
Every year I spend some days working at a conference at Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, a very walkable village at the western tip of the island.
Yes, all of this is worth reflection in terms of walkability and sustainability.
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